The Sweet Taste of Freedom

Eluniversal.com

The Colombian Army rescued safe and sound ex presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three US citizens and 11 military officers held as hostages by the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), on Wednesday announced Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos.”They were rescued in an operation aimed at infiltrating the FARC first squad, the same that has held a large number of hostages for years.

Through several procedures, we also could infiltrate the FARC Secretariat. Since hostages were divided into three groups, we managed to have them gathered at one single place and then moved to the south of the country, where they would supposed to report to (new FARC top leader) Alfonso Cano,” said Santos.

Wow, FARC holding political and military hostages? How very terrorist of them.

What was it that Chavez said about FARC?

CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Friday for Europe to remove from its list of terrorist organizations two Colombian groups — including FARC, the group that freed two hostages Thursday in a mission Chavez organized. During his televised State of the Union speech, Chavez — an outspoken enemy of the Bush administration — insisted Europe includes the two groups on its terror list only because of “pressure” from the United States,an which also names them on its list of foreign terrorist organizations. “I request from the governments of the continent that they will remove the FARC and the ELN,” Chavez said.

The only people clinging to the validity of chavez and his appeal to remove FART from the list of terrorist organization are John Grant and a representative of the former mayor of Macon, Ga:

VFP Salutes Chavez

A representative from the office of the former Mayor of Macon, GA (Jack Ellis) and a representative from Veterans For Peace attended a live video broadcast of ‘Alo Presidente’ in 2007. Hugo was presented with an official proclamation of support from the former Mayor of Macon Ga.

This video opens with Chavez reading the proclamation to the assembled captive audience. Later in this video, a representative of the ‘Mayor Without Borders’ has the opportunity to greet Chavez and express the former Mayor’s respect and honor of Chavez. The representative also notes the former Mayor of Macon has many similarities to Chavez.

Blip TV

My fellow Sheepdogs, the next Anglo to speak to Chavez is a familiar face – John Grant. A member of Veterans For Peace/VVAW and local West Chester peace protestor. He is quick to note that ‘many people in the United States don’t feel like George Bush’ . He then gives a quick half salute to this dictator.

Sweet.

Can we consider Chavez as a political backer for VFP and by extension CCPM?

Chavez has officially thrown his support behind the FARC

With approval from the membership of Veterans For Peace, Chavez attempts to have FARC removed from terror watch lists.

Anyway, the Chavez blathers on:

The FARC and ELN are not terrorist groups; they are armies, real armies that occupy a space in Colombia. We have to acknowledge the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces and the National Liberation Army. They are insurgent forces that have a Bolivarian and political project that is respected here.

FART favors child soldiers, planting landmines and holding hundreds of hostages for political leverage and ransom as part of its four-decade-old terrorism campaign.

Not surprising at all, FARC began as a Marxist-inspired peasant terrorist group in the 1960s, and is now labeled a drug-trafficking terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

I can see why John Grant’s best buddy Chavez adores these miscreants.

Another Chavez fearfully claims of assassination attempts, yet provided no proof of his parnoid ideation.

“In Bogota, there are American officials and Colombian military officials conspiring against Venezuela, conspiring to kill me, conspiring to start an armed conflict between Colombia and Venezuela,” Chavez said during a visit to Nicaragua.

Wow, I encountered an eerily similar allegation in a recent dispatch from John Grant, Veteran for Peace: ” I think it’s fair to say, the Victory Vigil gang has political endorsement or support from above or nationally and that vigils like the one in West Chester are targets”. Like his buddy Chavez, he has absolutely no proof of his paranoid ideation.

I look forward to publicly challenging John to produce his evidence or maybe I let them think I am funded…just to stoke the paranoia up a few notches with geriatric VFP membership.

H/T: This Ain’t Hell